Bond movie producer Barbara Broccoli has revealed Daniel Craig was always the first choice to play 007 in new movie Casino Royale - and there were no other candidates to play the suave superspy.
Despite reports that Dougray Scott and Hugh Jackman, among others, were considered for the part, Broccoli insists she offered Craig the role exclusively as soon as she decided to replace Pierce Brosnan.
Broccoli, the daughter of movie mogul CUBBY BROCCOLI, says, "It was a little bizarre reading things that were so not true. First of all, with the whole casting, who we were looking at, who we were offering it to.
"The reality was that (producer) MICHAEL (WILSON) and I wanted Daniel from the very beginning. Our only challenge was to get him to agree to do it. All the speculation was going on about all these other people for like a year or more.
"But the time we gave him the script to the time we announced him was three weeks. He was the only person we offered it to... All I could see every day was this extraordinary actor who was giving 150 per cent, who would train for three months and just give his all."